Call me sexist, but I, too, thought about Sarah Palin while listening to US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on “60 Minutes” the other night.

Max Boot, a conservative columnist for The Washington Post, is taking heat from “AOC” and others, for raising that comparison. But when Ocasio-Cortez was asked by Anderson Cooper about her fuzzy math, and answered, “I think there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right,” it actually made me wonder: What if Palin said something like that?

No one in the media would have rushed to the defense of John McCain’s running mate. Instead, her words would be fodder for more delicious Tina Fey ridicule.

I celebrate the social conscience, not to mention the social media genius, that Ocasio-Cortez brings to Washington. My 25-year-old daughter, who is not a constituent, follows her on Twitter and sees presidential timbre. It’s great to see a smart woman and fellow Boston University alum take on the establishment and prevail. And now, for the sake of all those young fans in your district and beyond, please don’t squander that platform you so gloriously won.

I’m with Whoopi Goldberg, who said about Ocasio-Cortez, “You just got in there and I know you’ve got lots of good ideas, but I would encourage you to sit still for a minute and learn the job.” And I don’t think it’s sexist to say that. Men who sound like they don’t know what they’re talking about can also get called out as vacuous. Ronald Reagan was once derided as an “amiable dunce” and Dan Quayle was basically written off as a dumb blond. I also don’t think it’s sexist to ask Ocasio-Cortez to explain how she would pay for an agenda that includes free health care and free college tuition. Bernie Sanders was asked to do the same.

Believe me, I know the bar is set higher for women. And acknowledging that reality may be another one of those generational divides that separates boomers from millennials. But no matter what your age or gender, it’s still better to dig in and do your homework than to get spanked by the Washington Post Fact Checker, which has documented several factual errors from Ocasio-Cortez. One was her pronouncement that unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs. Another, which earned her four Pinocchios, was her assertion that the Pentagon has a secret $21 trillion pool that could be put toward the cost of Medicare-for-all.

Who cares if her misstatements are not as numerous or as bad as President Trump’s? She was just sworn into office. Besides, the low bar set by Trump shouldn’t be the measuring stick for anyone.

As Boot points out, what happened to Palin is a cautionary tale for young female politicians. Palin had many problems. But her biggest failing was falling for the glamour and celebrity of the moment and never trying to grow in a way that showcased the skills that got her elected governor of Alaska. Maybe she was as limited as portrayed or maybe she just never hunkered down and did her homework.

For all her cool, Ocasio-Cortez does seem to understand the stakes. After the “60 Minutes” interview generated some negative buzz, she tweeted, “Fact-checking is critically important. It’s not always fun. But that’s okay. It pushes me to be better.”

She’s also luckier than Palin, who got no love from the media. So far the early mistakes of a Democratic Socialist are much more forgivable, even when they show a lack of depth or knowledge. But over time, every fact-check or critique can’t be written off as misogyny.

Im better then you
2012 UP Football Champ

Thu Jan 10 16:30:20
The way Foxnews obsesses over her is sexist.

Rugian
Member

Thu Jan 10 17:28:11
The slut has literally been on the front page of Google News since the opening of the current Congress. If you don't want the right to obsess over her, then don't constantly parade her around.

Rugian
Member

Thu Jan 10 17:31:58
Nice to see the Democrats proving that they're the party of adults and responsible government though. Between the terrorist declaring "we're going to impeach the motherfucker," OC calling for 70% tax rates, and Pelosi's insistence on legislative votes that are purely for show, I really hope these guys do well in 2020.

Dukhat
Member

Thu Jan 10 17:51:42
Just like when you interact with women Rugian, nobody cares what you think.

Rugian
Member

Thu Jan 10 17:54:13
You sure cared on November 8, 2016.

Forwyn
Member

Thu Jan 10 18:16:14
Fucking cuckservatives. They talk shit about the New Green Deal without even knowing anything about it, and focus on minor gaffes to distract from it. They'll be sitting at their computers spewing ignorant hate when Boston gets a new coastline. AOC might not be perfect, but she's light-years ahead of cuckservative science-denying Trumptards.*

Forwyn
Member

Thu Jan 10 18:16:36
*Sorry, forgot to swap over to the Cuckhat handle.

obaminated
Member

Thu Jan 10 18:51:40
Can we not compare this ugly twat to Palin?

Y2A
Member

Thu Jan 10 19:04:49
She's cute.

hood
Member

Thu Jan 10 19:16:45
"She's cute."

... Not really.

obaminated
Member

Thu Jan 10 19:30:45
she is fugly. say what you will about palin, but when she came out in 08, she was a milf.

Dukhat
Member

Thu Jan 10 23:03:36
Boston already has a new coastline. Been changing every year. Previously million-dollar properties are unsellable in many coastal areas now.

For a libertarian, Forwyn's sure is stupid. They love money most of all and all the money believes in climate change if real-estate prices and other indicators are to be believed.

kargen
Member

Fri Jan 11 01:28:59
Nah Libertarians love government getting the fuck out of their lives as much as possible.

If people knew what the Green New Deal actually was they wouldn't know whether to laugh or fear the future of all mankind that anybody thinks it is a viable solution. It is a huge pot of failed ideas all thrown into one big disaster. President Obama decided to subsidize green energy companies. The companies that got the bulk of the money declared bankruptcy and couldn't account for where they spent any of the funds they received.

Rugian
Member

Fri Jan 11 14:24:18
"Boston already has a new coastline. Been changing every year."

Fri Jan 11 14:49:46
And nobody cares about AOC except for the right-wing. She's a freshmen congressmen with little power except for the media attention lavished upon her.

This compared to Trump who is the president and literally unfit to serve in myriad ways.

kargen
Member

Fri Jan 11 15:57:24
Actually dumbfuck I went to
http://www.gp.org/green_new_deal and started my reading there.They helped convince me this is a stupid stupid idea.

If no one cares about AOC why is she getting time on 60 minutes and many other talking head shows across the airways? The media has been running with the narrative that President Trump is Satan here on Earth and now see AOC as the savior. She is going to continue to get a lot of face time and that is fine by me. It means more people will become aware of the socialist agenda running amok in our country.

Dukhat
Member

Fri Jan 11 16:03:39
The green party isn't part of the DNC. Nobody cares what they think in the US anyways. That's like me going to Le Pen's website and then accusing Republicans of wanting to break away from the EU.

Da Fuq.

And there is no socialist agenda you stupid shit. Republicans have controlled nearly everything for 40 years now with only a few small blips of Democratic control here and there. Most of the country's problems are because of stupid shitheads like you who don't take personal responsibility for your own mistakes and ignorance.

Trump's policies are just Dubya's policies on steroids.

Rugian
Member

Fri Jan 11 16:35:34
"Republicans have controlled nearly everything for 40 years now with only a few small blips of Democratic control here and there."

God you are so aggressively stupid.

In the last 40 years Democrats have controlled the presidency for 45% of the time and the House and Senate for 50% each. That latter figure includes the tail end of the Democrats' FORTY YEAR LONG control of the House from 1955 to 1995. Previous to that were the FDR-Reagan years. But sure, Republicans have basically controlled nearly everything. Fucking idiot.

This is before even addressing the other arguments in your post, which were equally retarded. You exemplify Dunning-Krueger, Dikhat.

Rugian
Member

Fri Jan 11 16:36:18
*FDR-Truman. Brain fart.

kargen
Member

Fri Jan 11 16:51:09
Who said anything about the DNC? I said the Green New Deal is stupid and you incorrectly thought I didn't know anything about the Green New Deal. You claimed I was making shit up. That is not the only site I went to. Did you read the agenda? That is a socialist agenda. Turns out I did my research and you pulled your response out your ass.

Ocasio-Cortez supports the Green New Deal (with some changes) and is doing all she can to get others to support the idea. People need to know what this idea is so it can be stopped now. It is a bad idea and yes it is a socialist agenda trying to hide behind the environment issues.

Dukhat
Member

Fri Jan 11 17:00:44
The Green New deal suggested by the democratic caucus will be significantly different than anything the Green party proposes.

And socialism doesn't mean anything to you people anyways. To American libertarians, everything is socialist. It holds no meaning. Climate change is the biggest strategic threat our country faces. Dealing with it will be important for our country in the future.

Man politics is so dumb now that the Greatest Generation is dead. These shitty horrible 1920's republican bullshit ideas keep getting dredged up again.

Knee-Jerk Reactionary bullshit.

kargen
Member

Fri Jan 11 20:33:40
I'm all for cleaner energy sources and renewable energy. Ocasio-Cortez and her ilk is attaching all kinds of silly ideas to the proposal she wants the house to consider. She wants the government to provide jobs (good paying jobs) to anyone that can't otherwise find a job and thinks raising taxes to do it is a good idea. That is just the tip of the iceberg of socialist programs they want included with their disaster of a plan. Oh and they are bringing up the scheme of treating pollution like a commodity again. You know where countries can sell the right to pollute to those that want to pollute. Of course all sales must go through a broker and the broker gets a huge fee for the deal. That and it wouldn't reduce air pollutants in any way. They also want to try and subsidize green energy again because losing billions the first time didn't teach them anything.
Let the private sector develop green and renewable energy. The market if they do it right is there and we get to leave the government out.

Dukhat
Member

Sat Jan 12 09:00:43
"She wants the government to provide jobs (good paying jobs) to anyone that can't otherwise find a job and thinks raising taxes to do it is a good idea."

We already do this for our shitty military-industrial complex.

As for raising taxes, the rich have it coming after causing the great recession and now exploding our deficit again with the tax scam.

A return to 90% taxes on the ultrawealthy like we had under Eisenhower would be great. The best our economy ever did was when taxes on the rich was 70-90% anyways.

Donald Trump has proven that the super-rich who inherit their money know nothing anyways and should not be subsidized.

"Oh and they are bringing up the scheme of treating pollution like a commodity again. You know where countries can sell the right to pollute to those that want to pollute."

This was a market-based idea proposed by conservative economists. You really know nothing.

The rest of the stuff is nonsense. We've used similar programs in the past signed off on by Reagan and Newt Gingrich to deal with pollution. And they happened to work very well.

The modern "conservative" is nothing more than a gender-obsessed reactionary lot of uneducated men.

CrownRoyal
Member

Sat Jan 12 10:08:33
That 70% tax rate that she was talking about, that was 70% marginal income tax rate on income over $10 million. Meaning that, if by some miracle congress enacts these tax rates, first ten mil you earn, in income, would be taxed exactly the same as today.

You gotta a) apply such rates to all capital gains, not just wages, and b) start at way lower amount.

CrownRoyal
Member

Sat Jan 12 10:10:11
Who would even pay 70 Percent under this plan? A couple of nba players?

obaminated
Member

Sat Jan 12 10:15:50
Yeah, lets not worry about over taxing a few people, what the fuck can they do about it anyways?

TJ
Member

Sat Jan 12 10:35:54
The same thing extreme wealth can always provide. Under the table political persuasion to prevent it from becoming law.

Odds of it happening are slim to none in my opinion.

CrownRoyal
Member

Sat Jan 12 12:03:05
"Yeah, lets not worry about over taxing a few people, what the fuck can they do about it anyways?"

What they can do is obviously more effective than what the proponents of higher taxes can do. Do you see 70 % tax rate, beanie? No? Make appropriate conclusions

Dukhat
Member

Sat Jan 12 14:17:12
Nobody would pay nearly that much anyways. Most would find ways to tax evade and go down to around 50% taxation like they did during the Eisenhower/JFK days.

We should tax the shit out of retards like Trump and the Kochs and Mark Zuckerberg. All idiots that inherited their money or did horrible things to become rich.

And CR is right; it affects almost none of us.

But Republicans proved with their tax scam; they'd go after their own supporters of doctors and lawyers to fund a tax cut for their billionaire kleptocrat donors.

It's a big reason why Orange County and New Jersey turned solid blue this cycle. The millionaires are revolting against the billionaires.